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Friends of Nicola Bulley today launched a fresh appeal for information exactly a fortnight on from her disappearance, declaring that her two daughters ‘need their mummy’ and ask every day if she is coming home.
The perplexing case of the missing mother-of-two has moved millions since she vanished while walking her dog Willow on Friday January 27 in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.
Emma White is among her loved-ones are holding a vigil in the village this morning, standing by the main road in the village while holding her photograph and urging any witnesses to come forward. Ms Bulley’s face is also displayed on a big screen.
She said: ‘We just need Nikki home for her two beautiful little girls who need their mummy. It’s like torture’, adding they have not given up hope she is alive.
‘The girls, when they get home from school, ask “any news on mummy?” and Paul [Nikki’s partner] has to say “no” and he can see the little girls just deflate. The little girl is saying “Is my mummy famous?” I didn’t quite know how to answer that myself… for the wrong reasons’.
She added: ‘Bring Nikki home, come to the sofa, with the girls, with Willow and you can have that happy story because that’s what we’re keeping hope for’.
Emma White says Nicola Bulley’s children ask every day if she is coming home
Two weeks ago today, Nicola Bulley, 45, was last seen walking her dog on a footpath by the River Wyre off Garstang Road in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire. Her friend Emma White (pictured together) who is among friends holding a vigil today
A lifeboat sweeps the river Wyre multiple times where it meets the estuary of Morecambe Bay, in Lancashire, two weeks on from missing Nicola Bulley
Police say that a team of 40 detectives has so far found no evidence of third-party involvement, insisting their ‘main working hypothesis’ is that Ms Bulley drowned. However there remains a ‘possibility’ that Ms Bulley left the bench where her dog and mobile phone were found via the only pathway not covered by CCTV cameras.
Ms White said: ‘We ultimately have an area out of the river where Nikki may have gone in that we have no footage for. We don’t know if Nikki wandered out or anyone has been seen. This is really crucial and that is what we’re pushing for today to raise that profile’.
Nikki went missing after the school run with police insistent that she tragically fell in the river, leaving her phone on a nearby bench.
Mums taking part in the vigil were adamant their friend would not have left her daughters behind voluntarily.
‘I know Nicola and there are only two possibilities, that she was abducted for fell in the river as the police believe,’ said a mum standing in light rain on the Garstang Road.
‘There is no way that Nicola would have gone off on her own and leave her daughters behind. No one knows at the moment and that is why we are here to make people aware.’
Another mum who gave her name as Mel said her daughter was in the same class as one of Ms Bulley’s.
She said:’ We just want to try and make people think back to a fortnight ago and is they have any dashcam footage that might show Nicola.
‘We are all hoping that she is found and can come home.’
Police are said to be looking for a ‘tatty’ red van that was in the area as detectives trace up to 700 vehicles and their drivers. It came as the search shifted out to the Irish Sea after a team of expert divers abandoned their search of the River Wyre.
Officers insist their ‘main working hypothesis’ is that Ms Bulley drowned, possibly after ‘an issue’ with her springer spaniel, Willow.
Ms White said today they will be looking to “jog” people’s memory about the day she went missing.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: “It is two weeks today.
“The local community are coming out to raise that profile, we’re trying to jog anybody’s memory. Dashcam footage of Garstang Road, which is just outside of the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, just by the bridge that you go over.
“It is quite a key part of the village so people would remember going over it.
“Did they see anything? We’re out with banners, we’ve got placards of Nikki’s face, we’ve got a moving eight-foot LED board with her face on it with the message “Bring Nikki home”.’
The latest development in the mortgage adviser’s baffling disappearance comes as police issued a dispersal order after amateur sleuths filmed themselves on TikTok trying to get into a large derelict house close to where she was last seen.
Lancashire Police also condemned ‘grossly offensive’ social media messages aimed at Ms Bulley’s family and police, saying they ‘would not hesitate to take action’.
Detectives are probing a two-hour gap between Nicola Bulley’s disappearance and the first call to police to report her missing – as three key CCTV blindspots are identified.
The mother-of-two, 45, vanished while walking her dog along the River Wyre near the village of St Michael’s, Lancashire, at around 9.10am on January 27.
However, the first call about her disappearance did not come until 11am – leaving a near two-hour window between her last sighting and officers beginning their search.
Lancashire Police is working under the hypothesis that she slipped into the water and drowned, but despite meticulously combing a mile-long stretch of the river, no trace of the mortgage adviser has yet been found.
As the search enters a 14th day on Friday, police have moved to the sea to begin trawling Morecambe Bay.
Friends of missing woman Nicola Bulley hold missing person appeal posters along the main road in the village in St Michael’s on Wyre
The group home someone will have seen her alive
The mother-of-two, 45, vanished while walking her dog along the River Wyre near the village of St Michael’s
Police walk past the bench on the River Wyre which is the last location of a sighting of Nicola Bulley – where her phone and dog was found
Two boats with specialist police teams are now searching the coast off Morecambe Bay, around 20 miles from where Nicola was last seen, with police suggesting finding her ‘in the open sea becomes more of a possibility’.
The widening of the search comes despite Peter Faulding, founder of expert search team Specialist Group International, saying it is ‘impossible’ for Ms Bulley to have made it to the sea.
He added that, having used specialist sonar equipment over three days, it is his belief that she is not in the river – raising the prospect of a ‘third party’ involvement in the disappearance.
It also emerged yesterday that investigators could be trying to trace a ‘tatty’ red van parked near to where the mother-of-two vanished two weeks ago, after a witness reported it to police on two occasions.
Meanwhile, three blindspots have been identified surrounding the area Ms Bulley went missing – after police admitted she could have left the area via a path not covered by cameras.
Lancashire Police is working under the hypothesis that she slipped into the water and drowned, but have admitted that it is possible she left the area by one path not covered by CCTV cameras.
The path in question leads to Garstang Road, which runs through the village, and is therefore a blindspot.
Officers have been attempting to trace dashcam footage from 700 drivers who passed along the route at the time of her disappearance.
Aside from the river itself, there are only two other exits from the area, one of which is covered by CCTV.
Friends of the missing mother have claimed that CCTV covering the other exit, close to mobile home site Rowanwater, is not working.
This camera would have covered the fields to the south of where Ms Bulley was last seen.
After reviewing other CCTV footage from within the mobile home site, police are confident that Nicola did not leave the field near the river via Rowanwater itself.
Another blindspot is a riverside path leading from the Wyreside Farm Caravan Park through to the A586.
A camera at a house close to the path is also understood to have not been working at the time, but did not cover the exit regardless.
A CCTV image of Ms Bulley wearing a long dark jacket and boots prior to taking her two young children to school
Police officers walk past the bench where Ms Bulley’s phone was found shortly after her disappearance
Lancashire Police is working under the hypothesis that she slipped into the water and drowned
Ms Bulley – a 45-year-old mother-of-two – went missing near the River Wyre on January 27
Superintendent Sally Riley this week acknowledged the possibility of Ms Bulley having left the ara via a blindspot, but added that ‘every single’ suspicion or criminal suggestion had so far been discounted.
It comes as police today moved the focus of their search towards the sea, with boats trawling Morecambe Bay.
It has also emerged investigators could be trying to trace a ‘tatty’ red van parked near to where the mother-of-two vanished two weeks ago, after a witness reported it to police on two occasions.
Lancashire Police and a private diving company both conducted extensive searches along the River Wyre, but have so far found no trace of the mortgage adviser.
Two boats with specialist police teams were today seen searching the coast off Morecambe Bay, around 20 miles from where Nicola was last seen, with police suggesting finding her ‘in the open sea becomes more of a possibility’.
This is the area police have been searching for almost a fortnight but there is no sign of Ms Bulley
Paul Ansell, 44, pictured with diving expert Peter Faulding, who told the anxious father ‘she’s not here’, during a third extensive day of searching along the River Wyre in Lancashire on Wednesday
Ms Bulley pictured with her dog Willow during a walk. She was walking her pet when she went missing two weeks ago
Earlier, police sought to reassure the public today that their search is still active after no officers or divers were seen at the immediate scene of her disappearance along the River Wyre.
After three days of intense activity with diving expert Peter Faulding leading a search on a five-mile stretch of the river, it was eerily quiet with no police around.
Mr Faulding and his Specialist Group International team ended their investigations after he declared Ms Bulley was not in the stretch of river where he had been searching using high-tech sonar.
Police divers had joined in his search – but they were absent today with Lancashire Police assuring the public the search is continuing along other stretches of the river than runs into Morecombe Bay.
But Mr Faulding has previously said he doubts that Ms Bulley’s body would have been carried so far into the bay and out into the Irish Sea if she had indeed drowned.
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